Have I mentioned.....?

  Have I mentioned how lucky I am to have such a awesome, loving, wonderful husband? And not to mention some pretty darn awesome kids too! I have a pretty large family, and that is not including my extended family on my side. I have had my share of eye-popping stares and gapes from people. But never have I had anyone say anything truly negative about the size of my family or how many children I have. Most people are genuinely curious as to why I wanted a large family. Or rather what is considered to be large by the vast majority of society today.  I am very blessed in the fact that despite my large family, I can actually go to nice restaurants and not have to worry about the kids misbehaving. That is one thing I give them credit and high praise for. They are exceptionally well behaved in public. I can't count how many times I have seen children and even teens, act pretty horrible in restaurants.  Now at home, that's a totally different story. They can drive you completely bonkers and totally strait jacket dreaming, wishing for sound proof padded wall rooms...in 0.0001 seconds flat. But at least they leave that at home when we are out and about. I can remember an outing we had in 2009. We were at Red Lobster and I was waiting for the waiter to bring me the bill. After about 45 mins, I finally pulled the waiter aside and asked him where my bill was. He said he would be back in a moment with it. Next thing I know the manager comes over to the table. He looked at me and said "You don't have a bill. Your meal is on the house ma'am." I was like say what? If I recall, what I actually said was "Say huh?" The manager was so polite and he explained just why the meal was free. He pointed to a table a few feet away and said, "You see that table?" ...Umm well yes it is kind of hard to NOT notice them. They have been pretty 'loud' all evening.  He then said "Exactly. They have been rude and loud to other patrons all evening. Your family on the other hand, has been so quiet that I didn't believe my waiter when he said there were 8 children under the age of 15 with only 1 adult. Your meal is on the house because it is refreshing to see that children still have the ability to behave so well in public."
  I sat there for a good 10 minutes, just totally shocked. It was good to hear something like that, But I didn't feel it deserved an expensive meal, free.  I guess I am just of the mind that you can still raise children who don't throw t-total tantrums in public.  When I was a kid I threw a tantrum in public exactly ONE time. I will never forget it either. I threw myself on the floor in Kmart and holy sheep turds. My mama snatched a belt off the rack and tore my tail up right then and there. Let me tell you, I never threw another tantrum in public ever again. I am just really fortunate that the only thing i ever had to do to stop the tantrums in public when the kids were younger was to put a little sign down that said "Tantrum in Progress, please ignore". It worked pretty darn good and the kids learned fairly quick that throwing a tantrum, wasn't going to get you much.

So tell me, what stories of motherhood, and fatherhood....do YOU have to share?

XOXOXO
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